Subscription cards for Al Jazeera are being found in the U.K., infringing on the on the £3 billion in deals signed with BT Sports and BSkyB. Al Jazeera’s cards are not secured with a specific set top box and can be used in any generic box, so some bars and individuals have been picking up the Al Jazeera satellite signal on the cheap.

The Premier League wants Al Jazeera to secure cards with boxes before it considers allowing the channel to show all the matches. But subscribers are still forking out for a package they were told would enable them to watch all the games.

“EPL have made themselves very rich over the past 18 months, but now they have to decide which of their $9 billion customer base they need to upset the least,” said Nick Grande, managing director of Middle East broadcast consultancy ChannelSculptor. “By stopping live international coverage of 3pm Saturday games, they are protecting their UK nest egg.”

From the get-go, this round of television rights for the Premier League in the Middle East and North Africa has been confusing and the process opaque.

In previous rounds, the three-year MENA rights were awarded to a broadcaster at an auction nearly a full year in advance of the season starting. This time, the EPL awarded the rights later, in January, and to a media broker, MP & Silva, in the expectation that the firm would sell on the rights to one or more broadcasters in the region of 23 countries.

But there are few channels that can actually afford the rights here. Al Jazeera is one of them, and the other is Abu Dhabi Media, which previously held the rights last season. Other channels, such as Dubai-based OSN say the price expected by the Premier League makes the rights commercially unprofitable.

Abu Dhabi Media paid $360 million in the previous three-year round and the word on the terraces earlier this year was that it did not want to pay a similar price again. The Premier League had few other options than to take less cash for the rights or go with Al Jazeera and risk the unsecured card and box platform, media commentators say.

It took the risk, and now football fans are paying, literally and metaphorically, for the decision.